Announcing New “Seed Grants” for Engagement Projects: Participants in the Clinic track at this year’s People-Powered Publishing Conference will be eligible for “seed grants” of up to $2,000 each. See below for details.

There’s no shortage of doom and gloom in our current public conversation about “the media.” Declining trust, political polarization, “fake news:” the challenges are real, but there’s more to the story.

Approaches to journalism that center listening and dialogue are gaining traction across the country. More journalists and news organizations are exploring new ways of incorporating “engagement” into their reporting, and a growing number of civic change-makers are pioneering new approaches to community-centered storytelling from the ground up.

About the conference
We believe that successful engagement is inherently collaborative, and that “engaged” journalism extends beyond the work of the newsroom. This two-day conference provides tools for journalists, civic-engagement specialists and community storytellers to create a more collaborative and equitable news landscape by strengthening the connections between news organizations and the people they cover. We’ll take a hands-on approach to explore where educators, artists, tech developers and others share common goals with journalists.

This conference aims to provide a space for journalists, civic-engagement practitioners and community storytellers to work together on a shared goal: strengthening the connections between news organizations and the people they cover, in order to create a more collaborative and equitable news and information landscape.

Over the course of two days, we’ll take an in-depth, hands-on approach to the challenges and opportunities surrounding engagement-driven journalism. At the same time, we believe that successful engagement is inherently collaborative, and that “engaged” journalism extends beyond the work of the newsroom: we’ll also think creatively and strategically about how journalists and people outside the newsroom — educators, artists, technologists, organizers and more — can work toward common goals.